Prizm Plays Music You Like To Transform Your Living Room Into Your Favorite Coffee Shop

Remember the last time you went to the same coffee shop or bar because the staff tends to play music you like and you don’t have to pick the next song? Prizm is a neat little pyramid add-on for your sound system to transform your living room into this coffee shop you like. The French startup is just beginning the last week of its Kickstarter campaign of its $129 smart music player for your home.

If you want to use Prizm to play music, you just have to press the play button and that’s it. Prizm will stream music directly from Spotify, Deezer and SoundCloud based on your favorite genres and tracks. You don’t have to launch anything on your phone or computer. It’s like a physical Pandora-like service for your home.

“The key advantage compared to existing solution is that Prizm is both instant and context-aware,” co-founder Pierre Gochgarian told me. “Our device automates what every music service tries to do with their playlists — ‘Wake Up’, ‘Dinner Party’, etc.”

Behind the scene, Prizm detects who is in the room using the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth signals from your phone. If someone else is home as well, Prizm will adapt the track list to find songs that suit you both.

You can like a track or skip it, making Prizm learn more about your tastes over time. And if you’re sitting across the room, there will be an optional mobile app to control Prizm.

Now, Prizm has some limitations as well. For example, you can’t use Prizm to simply stream music to your stereo using AirPlay, Spotify Connect or Chromecast. For now, it’s all about the hands-off listening experience. Gochgarian told me that the team was considering adding AirPlay and Spotify Connect support.

But there is one feature that I particularly like. Prizm will also listen to its environment to know if there are many people ready to party, or if it’s a quiet dinner with a few friends. This way, it can play some music that will suit everyone’s mood.